14 Amazing Tips to know Get More Out Of Google Drive

Cloud services are provided by many companies online. Google Drive, Dropbox and SkyDrive are the most popular cloud storage platforms but Google Drive got my attention and if you are using Google Drive as I do then you should know the following tips which will bring you more from Google Drive and will enhance your experience with it.

The Google Drive cloud storage is linked to your Gmail account (which is actually a good thing) and the 5 GB free storage space available in Gmail. I will show you in this tutorial the 15 best tricks I used to get the best out of my Google Drive account.

1. Attaching Google Drive Files On Gmail

Since Google Drive is linked to your Gmail account, you can attach your files stored in Drive directly to your Gmail account. If you already have your file stored in Google Drive then you can attach these files on an email without re-uploading them. With this method the file size limit does not apply since the email receiver will download the file from a link. To insert the files from Google Drive you just need to click on the Google Drive button on the bottom of the New Message window.

2. Google Drive Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a certain number of keyboard shortcuts that will facilitate your navigation on the Google Drive page on your browser. The most useful shortcuts I used are listed in the table below:

Key

Shortcut

Function

1

S

This will let you mark (with a STAR) and unmark the highlighted item

2

X

Select or deselect the highlighted item.

3

.

Use the period to share the currently highlighted item

4

K or J

Navigate to the Next and Previous item in a list without selecting it

5

Down Arrow or Up Arrow

Select the Next and Previous item respectively

6

Shift + Down Arrow or Shift + Up Arrow

Select multiple Next or Previous items.

7

Shift + A

Select all elements

8

Shift + N

Deselect all elements

9

Shift + T

Create a new text file

10

Shift + P

Create a new presentation

11

Shift + S

Create e new Google Spreadsheet

12

Shift + D

Create a new drawing

13

Shift + F

Create new folder

14

Ctrl + Alt + G

Open Revision History in files

The above shortcuts will facilitate your navigation on Google Drive

3. Share Pictures easily on Google +

Another advantage of the linkage between Google Drive and your Google account gives you the ability to easily share pictures from Google Drive onto Google +. It’s quite easy because you just have to select the ‘From Google Drive’ option whenever you are adding a picture.

Step-1 First, upload your pictures on Google Drive

Step-2 than Right click on a picture that you want to share,

Step-3 select share option a window will pop up

Step-4 click on an advance option located at the bottom than share setting window will pop up Now you have reached to your final interface from where you can share your images by clicking to the google+ icon.

Make sure To share to Google+, you will need to change the visibility.

4. Using Forms To Collect Data

Creating and collecting form data online can never be easier than using Google Forms in Google Drive. Any data inputted in the form will be automatically and conveniently compiled into a spreadsheet document.

To create a new form, just click on the ‘Create’ button and select Google Form in the list from the more option. This will create a new document with many options to collect data. From here, you will be able to create textboxes, checkboxes, multiple choice, lists, scams and grids. The created form can easily be shared with other people by providing them with a direct link to the form or via their email. The information will be collected when filled and compiled in a Google Spreadsheet for further analysis. Google Drive Spreadsheets are similar to Microsoft Excel and can also calculate values using mathematical formulas. The information can be viewed in a list for easier organization. Just click on view, then list

5. Save images On Websites Directly to Google Drive.

Images, Documents, HTML 5 audio and videos can be saved directly to Google Drive after installing the ‘Save to Google Drive’ Chrome extension. Using this extension is simple because whenever you will right click on a link or image. You will get the option ‘Save to Google Drive’.

6. Edit Images With Google Drive

You can also edit images directly from Google Drive by installing the Pixlr Editor extension on your Chrome web browser. Once this extension installed, you can right-click on any picture in your Google Drive and open it with Pixlr Editor. This extension comes with many basic tools which are more than sufficient for basic picture editing.

7. Add Filters To Your Google Drive Photos

Installing and using Pixlr Express on Google Chrome will add the Instagram feel on Google Drive Photos. Right-click and open your Google Drive photos with Pixlr Express. From there you can choose from a list of many filters, borders, fonts and tilt-shift effects

8. Listen to music saved on your Google Drive

Using Google Drive normally will only allow you to download music files stored in your Google Drive but you might just want to listen to this music without downloading it. The ‘Drive Music’ extension for Google Chrome browser will permit you to listen to any music file on your Google Drive account. Drive music opens the file on a separate tab and provides basic functions similar to music players.

9. Creating, Editing and Saving Mind Maps with Google Drive

If you install the Chrome app MindMeister then you will be able to create mind maps on your browser. These mind maps can be saved to Google Drive for viewing and editing everywhere you like.

10. Adding Google Drive to Windows Menu

The Google team saw that it was cumbersome to always open Google Drive first before adding files to it. To resolve this problem, Google Drive can be downloaded for Windows

There? Now drag the Google Drive folder using your right click on the mouse from the Favorites panel to the SendTo folder. Now you will be able to upload any file to Google Drive through the Windows menu. Just right click on the file and navigate to SendTo then click on Google Drive.

11. Pining Google Drive to the Jumplist of Windows file explorer

You can also have direct access to the Google Drive folder by adding (pinning) it to the Jumplist of File Explorer. This is very simple, you just have to drag the Google Drive folder to the File explorer icon located on the taskbar. From now, you can access the Google Drive folder by right clicking on the explorer icon then left-click on Google Drive.

12. Using the revision History of Google Drive To restore accidentally Modified or Deleted Files

You can retrieve a file accidentally deleted from Google Drive within 30 days after deleting the file. After this deadline, the file will be missing for good. For individual files in your Google Drive account, you can view the modifications made on the file and restore the file to a previous state.

To do this, you just have to open the file from Google Drive and hit the ‘CTRL + ALT + G’ shortcut. This will open a panel on the right of your screen where you can view the modifications made on your file in the past.

13. Deleting The Automatic Deletion of file versions:

Google permits you to restore only the last 100 previous revisions of files. Which can be inconvenient since you might need to restore a file modified long time ago. You have the option to get an unlimited amount of revisions on your files on Google Drive at the detriment of your Storage space.

To disable automatic deletion of revisions on a file, right click on the targeted file on Google Drive then select Manage revisions. Another window pops up and from there, you can select the file revisions hat should never be deleted. This list might be very long of you got many revisions synced to your Google Drive account.

14. Installing More Google Drive Apps on Google Chrome

The extensions mentioned above are not all the apps you could use on Google Chrome on Google Drive. There is a good number of very useful apps that can be downloaded from the Google Chrome Store. You just have to browse through the Google Drive apps collection and you will surely find many interesting apps for you. Here is a list of a few more Chrome apps that may benefit you.

AutoCAD WS

Lucidchart

PicMonkey

Hojoki

SlideRocket

HelloSign and many others.

I just showed you my top 15 tricks I use to get the best out of my Google Drive account. I use almost all of this tools at the same time to spice up my experience with Google Drive. You can use a few or all of these tips depending on your aims but you can be sure that from now, you will be far more advanced than a normal Google Drive user.